Point-of-purchase advertising in grocery stores and similar businesses has existed for a very long time. A number of advertising techniques have been employed with the goal of enhancing the sales volume of advertised products. Some of the advertising techniques of the past, which target a specific product, have had little impact on sales, while others have caused a measurable increase in sales. Most sales increases in the past have been modest. Thus, the quest has continued for better ways to enhance sales of a given product, among many other available products, offered along a shopping aisle in a retail store.
Typically, the manufacturer of a product, which is to receive target point-of-purchase advertising in a retail store, places or contracts for the placement of the advertising adjacent to the product, stored on a shelf, in a refrigerated cabinet or on a rack. The costs of such advertising must be balanced against the increase in sales of the product, if any, which is the subject of the target advertising. Key factors in respect to such point-of-purchase advertising are: (1) the extent to which the attention of prospective customers is attracted directly and meaningfully to the product receiving the target advertising over and above other available products; (2) the comparative cost of the advertised product; and (3) the cost and convenience of installing, maintaining and varying the target advertising. Most prior art point-of-purchase display devices have not produced a large increase in sales.
Until recently, the prior art of point-of-purchase advertising displays have sometimes comprised rigid and static displays supported by a shelf such that the advertising thereof faces the aisle while being generally flush with the shelf. Such signs are known to sometimes provide illumination, but such illumination is obscure because it is directed transversely into the aisle from difficult to observe locations between shelves which contains goods in the form of stacked cans or packages, for example. One must be in the aisle directly in front of the display in order to effectively see the illumination. Also, the advertising indicia of the sign is parallel to the aisle, requiring the potential purchaser to be directly in front of the sign in order to read and understand the advertising indicia. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,015,177 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,363 for examples.
As an alternative, the earlier prior art teaches use of a non-illuminating deflectable display assembly which is mounted in cantilevered fashion to extend transversely into a shopping aisle. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,331. A top eccentric torsion spring biases the display assembly toward the neutral position counter to any displacement by a shopping cart, for example. This type of sign does not adequately attract the singular attention of potential buyers.
In addition, it is known to provide an illuminated deflectable display mechanism which comprises a permanent cantilevered frame indirectly mounted to shelf molding in which one or more advertising cards are inserted. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,773, issued to one of the present inventors. While the advertising cards are removable and replaceable, the overall configuration and nature of the advertising region is fixed. It is, therefore, impossible to vary the peripheral limits and the basic nature of advertising, though card content may vary. A deflection-accommodating spring or other return is connected directly to the proximal part of the frame or, in the alternative, an eccentric elevated torsion spring returns the frame, after lateral deflection, to its neutral position. If a peripherally different sign is desired, the entire display assembly must be removed and replaced by something else, if available.
Prior art point-of-purchase display assemblies fail to accommodate substantial variation in the nature, the configuration, including the peripheral make-up, and the content of the advertising segment of a display assembly without requiring disconnection and removal of the entire display assembly from its mounting upon a molding at a shelf edge or on the face of a refrigerator cabinet.
Also, the nature of a centrally-disposed return spring for cantilevered display assemblies of the prior art typically requires attachment of the return spring directly to the proximal end of the frame, which frame surrounds the area of advertising. Thus, the central return spring not only biases the display assembly toward neutral, but also fully supports the weight of the cantilevered frame and the contents thereof while singularly absorbing the deflection impact of shopping carts against the frame. As a consequence, the life of the return spring is relatively short and as the spring begins to lose its resiliency or strength, the display frame may not continue to return to neutral and/or may sag.
Furthermore, provision of illumination systems for such display assemblies has posed certain problems related to size, location and access to and vandalism of sources of power comprised of batteries.
In addition, insertion, retention and removal from the peripheral frame of advertising cards has presented difficulties including but not limited to wear and tear, soiling, vandalism and unauthorized removal.